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Tuesday, January 13, 2015

a final resting place

SB and I hike with the furbabies every weekend and one of the go-to hikes is along the Hong Kong Trail stage 5. We have skirted Mt. Parker on many occasions but now I will never go by the route without thinking about a plane from the Torpedo Bombing Squadron Seven (VT-7). On Sunday night as I was scrolling through Facebook, I saw a post from my friend, Ruth: "Read what Craig's up to", with this picture attached:

I followed the link and embarked on a long forgotten, or in my case, unknown, history regarding two planes that crashed and five lives that were lost on the hillside. It also was a wonderful tale of amateur historian Craig Mitchell and his team, who meticulously researched the case and eventually set out to successfully locate the crash site of a missing plane, and possibly the final resting place of two missing airmen.

I spent a good portion of my day yesterday gazing out my office window at Mt. Parker, marveling at Mitchell's accomplishment. My boss once had to bushwhack through the brush in Lantau to retrieve a crashed paraglider and he told me that it was an excruciatingly slow and painful event. The team that searched for the missing plane have my awe.